Sahana is a web based collaboration tool that addresses the common coordination problems during a disaster. The New York City Office of Emergency Management has worked with contractors, the original creators of Sahana, and the international open source Sahana community to modify the application to fill operational gaps in the New York City Coastal Storm Plan.

The Staff Registration System (SRS) organizes contact information for the city employees who have been assigned to the CSP. SRS database size is limited only by hardware (currently configured for ~68,000 staff) Data points: Unique Identifier, first name, last name, Emergency role classification, agency, PMS ID, civil service title, home address, work address, three phone numbers, two email addresses, language information, and drivers license classification

Shelteree Tracking System - Monitor shelterees staying in city run shelters[edit]

The Shelteree Tracking System captures information on people seeking shelter in the NYC sheltering system. Shelterees are organized by family representative and include pets in the family unit. Data points: Name, age, address, pet information, family composition, facility within which the family is taking shelter

The Staff Activation, Notification, and Deployment System (SANDS) merges data from the Site System and the Staff Registration System to assign 36,000 staff to over 600 discrete operations based on the geographic location of the staff and the needed staff classifications of the activated operations. After facility activation, staff assignment, and message creation take place, that information is pushed to a third party mass-messaging provider who has the ability to send text and audio messages to ~60,000 people in under 40 minutes.

Evacuation Center Sahana staff are responsible for electronically checking in all staff assigned to the Evacuation Center and it's attached Hurricane Shelters. For step by step instructions, please go to (include link)

How does a Hurricane Shelter or Special Medical Needs Shelter use Sahana?[edit]

Hurricane Shelters and Special Medical Needs Shelters Sahana staff are responsible for electronically entering shelteree data. Currently, Sahana staff at Hurricane Shelters and Special Medical Needs Shelters do not check in their own staff.